Milos Raonic life and biography

Milos Raonic is a Canadian professional tennis player from Thornhill, Ontario, Canada. Born in what is now Podgorica, Montenegro, Raonic moved to Canada with his family at the age of 3. Raonic is Canada's highest ATP ranked male singles player and the country's highest ever ranked player since computer rankings began in 1973. He is currently ranked World No. 28.

CAREER:

Raonic started the 2010 season with new coach, former teammate Frédéric Niemeyer. Raonic reached the semi-finals of three of his first five ITF Futures events in doubles, Great Britain F1, F2, partnering with Uladzimir Ignatik, and France F2 playing with Romain Jouan. He also won his doubles Davis Cup tie playing against Colombia with World No. 1 Daniel Nestor. He lost, however, both of his singles rubbers in Bogota.

In mid-April Raonic captured the Korea F2 singles title as the top seed, defeating No. 3 Hiroki Kondo in the final 6–1, 6–1. He did so without losing a set and by winning his first match without conceding a game, over World No. 668 Min-Hyoek Cho. In May he captured his second title in three weeks, dropping just one set in taking Korea F4. The following week he lost to No. 8 seed Tatsuma Ito in the first round of the 2010 Busan Open Challenger Tennis tournament. Despite the loss he saw his singles ranking reach a career high for the second time in two weeks, at World No. 303. Raonic reached a new career high singles ranking in late June, rising to World No. 276.

In July Raonic reached the singles finals of the 2010 Challenger Banque Nationale de Granby before falling to No. 1 seed Tobias Kamke 3–6, 6–7. This result saw Raonic's ranking go to yet another new career best World No. 209. The following week Raonic received a special exemption to appear in the main draw of the 2010 Odlum Brown Vancouver Open where he has lost to No. 7 seed Robert Kendrick in the first round, 6–7(3), 4–6. Granted a wild card into the singles main draw of the 2010 Rogers Cup, Raonic lost in the first round to Victor Hănescu, 4–6, 4–6. In doubles he and partner Vasek Pospisil had the privilege of playing against Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, and winning, 10–8 in the tie-break. It was first time that the World Nos. 1 and 2 had played together in a tour doubles match since Jimmy Connors and Arthur Ashe did so in 1976. Raonic and Pospisil lost in the second round, however.

Raonic qualified for the U.S. Open but lost his main draw first round match to Australia No. 3 and wild card entrant Carsten Ball. Two weekends later in the Davis cup, versus the Dominican Republic, Raonic won his singles match 9–7 in the fifth set over Victor Estrella, as Canada won the tie 5–0 to stay in the Americas Zone Group 1 for 2011.

2011:

Raonic started 2011 playing qualifying matches for the 2011 Aircel Chennai Open where he lost in the qualifying round against Édouard Roger-Vasselin. Next, he successfully qualified for the 2011 Australian Open. He won his first round match against German Björn Phau in three sets, his first victory in a main draw Grand Slam match. In the second round he defeated No. 22 seed Michaël Llodra of France, again in three sets, becoming the first Canadian man in 10 years to reach the third round of a singles Grand Slam. He then knocked out the Russian World No. 10 Mikhail Youzhny in four sets to reach the fourth round, the first qualifier to make the 4th round of a Grand Slam since 1999. Playing his next match at the Hisense Arena, he fell to World No. 7 David Ferrer after he lost the last three sets, despite winning the first.

Raonic received a wild card into the main singles draw of the following week's 2011 Regions Morgan Keegan Championships. Interestingly, he opened against Fernando Verdasco, the player he had just faced two days earlier, and prevailed again, this time in three sets. Milos next defeated Radek Štěpánek also in three sets, serving a career-high 38 aces in the process. After defeating qualifier Robert Kendrick in the quarter-finals, again losing the second set before prevailing, Raonic continued his unbeaten run, defeating No. 4 seed Mardy Fish in the semis, once again despite dropping the second set. He lost a closely contested final, however, to No. 1 seed and two-time Memphis champion Andy Roddick, 6–7(7), 7–6(11), 5–7, with Roddick making a diving forehand to win break point, on his fifth championship point for the match. Raonic's performance in this tournament elevated him to yet another career high ranking of World No. 37, making him the highest-ranked Canadian male singles player in ATP Rankings history.

Raonic won both his singles Davis Cup rubbers against Mexico on clay as well as the doubles tie together with Vasek Pospisil to advance Canada to the second round.

He was given a wild card berth for the Indian Wells Masters 1000 tournament main draw, where he lost to Ryan Harrison in the third round after wins over Marsel İlhan and Mardy Fish in the first two rounds. At the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open, Raonic was initially given a wild card berth, but due to his new career-high ranking of World No. 34, he was given direct entry as a seed after other seeded players withdrew. Seeded 31st, Raonic lost his opener to Somdev Devvarman, 6–7(5), 5–7.

Raonic started the clay court season at the Monte-Carlo Masters tournament by winning over Michaël Llodra and Ernests Gulbis before falling to 4th seed and eventual finalist David Ferrer in the third round. After the tournament, Raonic rose to a new career-high ranking of 28, his first time in the top 30. It is also his 7th week in the top 50. He reached third round at the 2011 Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell, and advanced to the semifinals at the 2011 Estoril Open (5th seeded there, he disposed of Igor Andreev in the first round, of João Sousa in the second round, and upset Gilles Simon in the quarterfinal before retiring due to a back injury against Fernando Verdasco 4-6 0-0). Raonic lost in the first rounds of the 2011 Mutua Madrid Open (to Feliciano Lopez) and the 2011 Internazionali BNL d'Italia (to Fernando Verdasco).

PERSONAL:

Plays with two-handed backhand
Speaks Serbian and English
Moved from Podgorica, Montenegro to Canada aged three
Parents are Dusan and Vesna (both engineers); sister, Jelena and brother, Momir
Started playing tennis aged eight
His dad "used a ball machine at 6:30 a.m. or 9:00 p.m. because court fees were a lot cheaper at this time"
Favourite surface is hard courts
Favourite shots are serve and overhead
Hobbies include watching movies and talking to family on Skype
Supports Real Madrid (soccer) and Toronto Raptors (basketball)
Idol growing up was Pete Sampras, "I video-taped all his televised matches"
Career goal is to be a "consistent Top 50 player with Top 10 aspirations"
Made Davis Cup debut for Canada versus Colombia in March 2010
Coached by former ATP pro Frederic Niemeyer (since December 2009)

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